Date: 04/05/08
Rating:
The final date of the Wonky Pop Tour - a showcase of 'real' pop acts that apparently sound nothing like one another and nothing like X Factor - touches down in Manchester for a night of camp tunes and bank holiday fun. The city's legendary Night & Day Café is an inherently apt choice of venue, and the final act of the night, Danish pop oddities Alphabeat are set to ensure that no matter how long you'd been in the pub, you were going to remember their name.
The strange group, who resemble a bunch of extras from Pretty In Pink, take to the stage amid rapturous applause. "This, now this is real music. You know, real pop music, with passion - put that in your pad and write it", one reveller turns and yells, overwhelmed with anticipation. It seems the band have created quite a stir already. Launching into their set with the ferocity of an over excited kitten with an injured mouse, perhaps most symbolic is the deranged tambourine playing, which, to the untrained eye, would not look too far removed from a seizure. Passion indeed.
Tracks such as '10,000 Nights' and 'Touch You Touching Me' drive the audience into a sweaty cul-de-sac in which the inescapable atmosphere is even harder to not let take control. When they finally drop their current single, 'Fascination', it's too late to imagine anyone coming out of here not believing it is indeed 1988.
To mark the end of the tour, the band are joined by tour mates Frankmusik and Leon Jean Marie for a final rendition of Daft Punk's 'Digital Love', a strange, slightly uncomfortable or at least confusing sight that marks a strange time for music, wherein bands cover producers and our search for something new has brought us once again back to the past.
They may not be to everyone's taste, nor do they exhibit the cooler-than-thou attitude of so many people involved in the music industry, from production to promotion. But it is precisely these factors that may well be the source of endearment that many people appear to have for Alphabeat.
Martin Guttridge-Hewitt
Alphabeat Official Site
Alphabeat Myspace
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